


Where We Both Could Live

by blue_jack



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Wings, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bottom Steve Rogers, Different Biology, Dubious Consent, Light Angst, M/M, Mention of eating humans and angels as Tony is a predator, Nipple Play, Orgasm Delay, Sounding, Tentacle Sex, Top Tony Stark, Winged Steve Rogers, octo!tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:40:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24715453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_jack/pseuds/blue_jack
Summary: Tony’s seen a lot of Humans, but he’s never spotted so much as a silhouette of an Angel before.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 74
Kudos: 391
Collections: Team Angst





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ETA: I've changed the title. Why? Because I can. >>
> 
> This was written for The SteveTony Games, Team Angst for the prompts: Dubcon + Tentacles + Wings + Soulmates 
> 
> Please read these fun facts relevant to the fic, if you don’t want to be confused:  
> 1\. Octopuses have receptors on their suckers that basically act as taste buds  
> 2\. Octopuses technically don’t have tentacles, they have arms. Tentacles are longer than arms, are retractable, and have a flattened tip that is covered in suckers, while arms have suckers all along their length. I refer to them as tentacles here, however, cause Tony has regular human arms too, so I thought it’d be too confusing  
> 3\. In addition to their central nervous system, Octopuses have a cluster of nerve cells in each arm that acts like a mini-brain to control that arm’s movement, which is why some people say octopuses have 9 brains  
> 4\. Male octopuses have a modified arm called a hectocotylus that transfers sperm packets to the female. Since Tony is half man/half octopus, instead of a beak being in the middle of all his arms, I’m putting a cavity where his hectocotyli (that’s right, he has TWO) stay, and they descend when he’s ready
> 
> Title based on the saying, “A fish and a bird may fall in love, but where would they live?” 
> 
> **Warnings** : Dubcon cause of soulmates, very little creativity cause my brain is tired, mentions of dissecting Angels, mentions of eating people and Angels (because Tony is a predator), different biology since neither are human, tentacle sex, sounding, accidental orgasm delay, light angst
> 
> It takes a village, guys. I want to thank Desdaemona on the mcu discord ([LonghornLetters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LonghornLetters) on AO3),  
> [Tina](https://thirstinart.tumblr.com/), and [SirSapling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirSapling/pseuds/SirSapling) for all their cheer reading. I was trying to get this story written as quickly as possible, and without their encouragement and hilarious comments, it would’ve gone a loooooooot slower. Thank you. <333

Tony’s seen a lot of Humans, both from far away on passing ships and up close and personal when they’ve had representatives visit Atlantis, but he’s never spotted so much as a silhouette of a real Angel before. 

Oh, he’s heard stories of the bird men from soldiers and dignitaries, even studied a few pictures, but he’s always been a little dubious. People that can fly? People that _choose_ to fly? In the air? Don’t they dry out? Don’t they get tired without the ocean buoying them up?

Tony’s tried walking on land before, and it was _exhausting_. He can go for short periods, and he’s practiced enough that he can even run for a bit, but afterwards, he needs a nap, because that shit’s draining.

He can’t imagine flying everywhere can be that much fun, but Angels obviously do it somehow. 

Just not this particular Angel apparently. Or at least not well.

He tilts his head, wondering if the guy’s still alive. It’s pure luck that Tony found him, floating on a piece of driftwood in the middle of nowhere. He has no idea how he got out here, considering Humans say Angels always stay close to land.

He cautiously pokes at one of the feet—weird, stubby things that don’t seem long enough to do anything useful but still successfully manage to hold Humans and Angels upright—and frowns when he doesn’t get a reaction. It’d be really disappointing if the first Angel he meets is a dead one.

He jabs harder at one of the wings, a mass of sodden feathers that take up way too much room, and they twitch in response, albeit weakly.

Still, he’s alive, and Tony discards the half-formed idea he had of taking him to Bruce’s lab and dissecting him. He can always revisit it if the Angel doesn’t get better, maybe save some of the more choice bits for eating. He wonders how Angels taste. He’d discovered that humans are just meh after a shipwreck once, but he hasn’t let his tentacles touch the body in front of him to get much of a sense of flavor.

That’s probably going to change, though. Ideally, he’d just be able to push the driftwood with its cargo along, but with those wings, the Angel would slide off as soon as Tony started moving. He doesn’t have any braided seaweed on him either, so he’s going to have to swim with his arms around the Angel in order to keep the wings mostly closed and minimize drag. That means his tentacles will doubtlessly tangle up around the Angel’s legs, which is going to slow them down like crazy, but at least he’s not wearing any of the funny clothes that Humans always have on.

It takes a little bit of experimentation to get situated. Tony wishes Angels could breathe underwater, because then at least, he’d be able to swim normally, but he has to turn onto his back in order to make sure the Angel doesn’t drown. It’s a pain, especially since the wings are a lot broader across the shoulders than Tony had expected, and they make it impossible to lay the Angel on his back. He ends up having to use one tentacle to wrap around the bottoms of the wings to keep them together with the Angel facedown on his chest, Tony’s arms loosely wrapped around him. 

They have to look ridiculous, he’s sure, and Pepper would probably laugh her fins right off if she could see them make their oh-so-slow way to a tiny island where the Angel can potentially recuperate. At this pace, it should take about an hour to get there.There’s not too much on it other than some coconut trees, but somewhat past that is a bigger island where he can move the Angel later if need be, and that one has more things for the Angel to potentially eat, as well as a freshwater lake.

At least the Angel is pretty light, which is surprising considering how muscular he is, but Tony supposes it makes sense. If Angels were too heavy, they’d never get off the ground.

Swimming like this gets monotonous after a while. Since he’s above water, it’s just sun, sun, sun, and the Angel is still unconscious, so there’s nothing to do but watch him or the horizon and occasionally turn his head to check that they’re not going to bump into any debris. He’s made this trip a few times, admittedly underwater, but he can feel where he is in relation to the land, so there’s no danger of getting lost.

By all rights, Tony should be bored out of his mind, but it’s actually kind of nice holding the Angel now that they’ve got a rhythm going. He’s really warm, which is soothing, and from what little Tony can see of his face, Tony’s beginning to suspect he might also be kind of beautiful. Tony hadn’t noticed before, what with trying to figure out logistics and the fact that the Angel’s hair had been plastered to his skin, hiding a lot of his features. It’s somewhat dry now, though, enough to mostly slide off his face, and Tony finds himself looking behind him less and less frequently in favor of trying to get a better look at him. 

Tony’s seen lots of gorgeous people in his life, of all shapes and kinds, but there’s something about his Angel … 

He blinks and realizes his head is a lot closer to the Angel’s head than it should be and that he’s slowed down a lot.

What the fuck. He’s never going to get to the island at this rate, the island that he’s going to in order to _help_ the Angel, where he might actually be able to see his face clearly, where his Angel might even _open his eyes_ once Tony’s gotten him mostly out of the water and warmed up.

He resolves to avoid looking at him again until they reach land and speeds up as much as he can, but it isn’t actually all that much with everything he’s carrying. Still, every little bit helps.

It’s not long before he realizes the problem he’s created for himself, though. 

At the rate he was going before, most of his tentacles were lower than the Angel, his body at somewhat of an angle to the water line while the Angel’s floated. Going faster means he's flattened out a bit to make himself more streamlined, and his tentacles rub against his Angel’s legs over and over again.

Tony keeps getting little flashes of what his Angel tastes like through his suckers, and it’s distracting as hell. At first he thought he was just getting hungry, but he quickly realizes that’s not it when he gets stirrings in a place somewhat lower than his stomach. 

His angel just tastes like … Tony doesn’t even know what he tastes like. Nothing in the ocean compares, nor anything the Humans have brought to Atlantis as gifts. He hates that the taste is muted since the receptors in his tentacles aren’t as strong as the ones on his tongue, and he’s never wanted to put his mouth on someone more than he does right now. He wants to lap at his Angel’s sweetness until he can’t taste anything else ever again, and it’s shocking just how quickly and how deeply he gets aroused.

Tony doesn’t mean to slow back down, but two of his tentacles have decided they’re going to wrap around his Angel instead of work, and while technically, yes, Tony could fix that, he doesn’t really want to.

He lets them explore instead, making sure he doesn’t grip too tightly and never going directly between his Angel’s legs. Other than the wings, his Angel seems to be shaped similarly to Humans, so Tony assumes his sexual organs are located in the same place. Sure, Tony’s touching and tasting, but he’s not _touching_ and _tasting_ , and he can blame it on curiosity if the Angel wakes up. It’s the truth even, although it’s only part of it, the rest being that Tony is so drawn to his Angel that it’s almost a compulsion to slide along his broad back and trace where his wings connect to his body, to stroke up and down his smooth legs, even to wriggle over feet and between toes that seem much cuter this close up than they had before.

It’s while Tony’s doing the last thing that his Angel flinches, and Tony jerks his tentacles away guiltily, but there’s no other reaction.

He’s almost tempted to do it again since it’s the most his Angel has moved the entire time, but his tentacles have their own ideas and start crawling all over his Angel’s thighs. Tony’s always thought legs were kind of weird, but he has to admit that his Angel’s are nice. They’re thick and muscular and like, wow, okay, actually _really_ thick. Tony doesn’t think he’s ever seen thighs this large, and they get quite a number of Human visitors that are part of their military.

They also taste _delicious_. 

Tony finds himself swallowing and rubbing his tongue against his teeth and top of his mouth, like he’s chasing after the flavor, even though it’s physically impossible since he’s only getting the echo from what his tentacles are touching. It’s a little embarrassing, but there’s no one to witness it, so whatever.

His Angel gets sweeter and sweeter the higher up his thighs Tony’s tentacles go, and his suckers are actually catching on his Angel’s skin from pressing so hard. It’s torture, but he wrenches his tentacles away before he does something he regrets.

His hectocotyli are descending without conscious direction, and that has literally never happened to him since he reached sexual maturity. He doesn’t understand why he’s acting like this, especially around an Angel who he’s never talked to or even seen his face. He’d just wanted to save his Angel, get to know him a bit, maybe brag to everyone he’d met one, not do whatever the hell it is that he’s doing right now.

He nearly cries in relief when his Angel moves and shows signs of waking up. Thank the Deep, now Tony will finally have something else to concentrate on other than licking his way up and down his Angel’s body.

Of course, he thinks that, but then his Angel lifts his head.

He’s more gorgeous than anything Tony could have possibly imagined.

Tony’s tentacles actually knot together for a second when he sees him.

“H-hi,” he croaks, and it’s a wonder he manages to get anything out, and in English, no less, because it’s much more likely his Angel knows that than Atlantean. “You were—”

“I found you,” his Angel says, his voice rough but his eyes shining with triumph. And then he kisses Tony.

A second later, Tony has to remember to pump his tentacles in order to keep from sinking under the water line, fucking hell. 

He can’t really blame them for freezing, though. Kissing his Angel is like nothing he’s ever experienced before. He almost feels jealous of his tentacles getting to taste him first, but they haven’t had a chance to experience his mouth yet, so if anything, they should be jealous of him. 

He turns the two of them so they’re upright, somehow losing his grip on the wings in the process, but that ends up working in his favor, because his Angel spreads them out on top of the water, and it makes it much easier to keep them both afloat.

“What’s your name?” he asks in between kisses, because he’s tired of referring to him as “his Angel,” even though it’s true. He can’t imagine wanting anyone else, ever again, and maybe that’s crazy, but he doesn’t care.

His Angel says something Tony doesn’t understand and then, “Steve. You can call me Steve.”

“Hi, Steve,” he says, and presses his temple to his, feeling weirdly overwhelmed. “I’m Tony.”

Steve says something else in his own language again, voice hushed and almost reverent, and then he nuzzles Tony’s cheek. “My soulmate.”

And Tony can’t disagree. “My soulmate,” he whispers back, and he’s not actually sure what that means, but it’s a promise anyway.

Kissing Steve feels right in a way he can’t explain, like it’s more important than talking or breathing, like he’ll never need anything else as long as he has this. He thinks he could be satisfied with just kissing him for hours on end. 

His tentacles, however, don’t agree.

Steve moans and shudders against him, and it’s only then that Tony realizes two of his tentacles are awfully close to Steve’s groin and another three have both of Steve’s nipples in their grasp and are popping on and off of them as they fight for space.

That’s—wow. That’s quite the sight.

He has to exert a little control to get them all to stop and focus on swimming instead, and he’s about to apologize, but then Steve wraps his legs around Tony’s waist and arches his back, his face pink, his nipples even pinker, and gasps, “That felt so good,” and there goes any chance of keeping his tentacles to himself.

The two at Steve’s thighs get to stay, since they’d been relatively respectful, but he assigns the three others to making sure Steve doesn’t drown. Sure, Steve apparently likes suckers on his nipples, but they hadn’t known that at the time. He replaces two of them with the ones who’d actually been doing what they were supposed to before, one tentacle per nipple to avoid fights. They immediately find their targets, and Steve jerks, his fingers digging into Tony, his hips doing something absolutely captivating as Tony’s tentacles taste and pull on his tender skin.

The last tentacle, his favorite if he’s being absolutely honest although he’d deny it to anyone else, he rewards by giving it free reign of Steve’s cock.

(“Cock” is such a strange word, especially considering it can also refer to roosters and to something done poorly and to who knows what else, but the Human military men swear by it, insisting “penis” is only for polite company, and who’s Tony to argue?)

That opens up a new cornucopia of delights, the soft but firm texture, the gratifying way his tentacle can wrap around Steve’s cock, making it twitch and flex in his grip as he undulates against it, and the taste! Steve is a treasure trove of different flavors all over his body, and Tony wants to bask in every one. 

Although … isn’t this a little fast? He’s literally never had sex with someone this quickly after meeting them before, and shouldn’t they do more than just exchange names? Shouldn’t he at least take Steve to dry land where he’s sure to be more comfortable?

That thought gets swept away like flotsam in a current as he discovers the tip of his tentacle can actually dip _inside_ Steve’s cock, causing Steve to bite at Tony’s lips as he trembles all over, and the rest of his tentacles go crazy as a result. The ones on Steve’s chest increase their suction until Steve whimpers pleadingly and scratches at Tony’s back, and then and only then do they let go, just to latch onto his nipples and do it again. 

Then the tentacles around his thighs throw being respectful to the wind, and they find another hole that’s not only slick with something that tastes even more delectable than Steve’s thighs but is also warm and snug and perfect, and they try to force each other out and cram as much of themselves inside as possible while Steve shakes and cries out against Tony’s lips, helpless little “uh, uh, uh” sounds that make Tony’s head spin.

He’s so drunk on desire that it takes him a moment to realize that Steve’s noises could actually be a bad thing, and he drags his tentacles out with his hands when they don’t pull out right away. Steve’s wings thrash against the surface of the water in reaction, and he pants, “In, put them in, oh, please, Tony, Tony,” and Tony’s thrilled to comply.

Although it’s not his tentacles which shove and bully their way inside of Steve, but his hectocotyli, one right after the other, and Tony doesn’t understand what Steve shouts then, the words in his own tongue rather than English, but he clings to Tony’s neck and does more of that rolling of his hips, and there’s a burst of flavor around the tentacle in Steve’s cock that Tony would do anything to get more of.

His hectocotyli are nowhere near as long as his tentacles, and they don’t have a single sucker on them, but in their normal state, the two of them together are significantly thicker than Steve’s cock, and Tony can change their length and girth at will.

He doesn’t, because it’s already a tight, tight squeeze inside of Steve, and he doesn’t want to hurt him, but maybe after Steve’s gotten used to taking more of him … 

Tony shivers at the thought and bites at Steve’s neck, his shoulder, focuses on that instead of how good Steve feels around him. He wishes he could use his hands more to touch and caress, but they’re too busy keeping Steve close and supporting him, so it’s up to his tentacles to do all the work. 

The two assigned to Steve’s thighs are restless now that they’ve been usurped, and they trace the seam of where Tony’s connected to Steve, as if to see if there’s any room for them as well. There isn’t, but Steve tilts his hips back anyway, as if he’s inviting them to try, and it makes Tony narrow his eyes, even as he strokes Steve’s hair and presses hot kisses to his temple. 

He doesn’t think Steve actually wants more inside of him, although maybe he’s wrong. Maybe Steve wants as much as he can get. 

Nonetheless, Tony thinks Steve is actually indicating he’s waiting for _movement_ , which isn’t something Tony would do with someone of his own race, but he’s had sex with Humans before, and it just takes him a second to recall what’s worked in the past.

Thrusting doesn’t come naturally to him, but he just has to remind his body of the motions. He’s been told that it feels better if he does one hectocotylus at a time to start out with, so he alternates them, fucking them into him slowly as Steve moans and clenches around him. He doesn’t realize the tentacle in Steve’s cock is mimicking the motion until he notices another spurt of flavor and realizes he’s tasting much more than he used to be. Steve isn’t protesting, however, and he feels even harder in Tony’s grip than he was when they began, but Tony still asks, “Is this alright? Steve? Is this alright, beautiful?” 

It fills him with pride when Steve’s head lolls to his shoulder and he slurs, “I’m going to come,” his eyes almost glazed over with pleasure, and the knowledge that Tony’s taking care of his mate is incredibly satisfying.

He speeds up just a little and changes the tempo of his alternating thrusts so there’s overlap now, moments when both hectocotyli are pushing into Steve and not just one, and he can tell Steve likes that, because his breath comes faster every time it happens, and he leaks more fluid around the tentacle in his cock. 

Steve feels so good that it’s not long before all of Tony’s tentacles are in a frenzy as he gets closer to orgasm. The two on Steve’s chest are almost slapping against his skin as they pull on and off, his nipples bright red and swollen. The one in his cock is going twice as fast as Tony’s hectocotyli, the movement much smaller and more precise, but Tony can feel how large Steve’s cock has become, burning hot and filled with blood. The three tentacles keeping them afloat are churning the water around them madly, and the last two are nudging against Steve’s opening and thrashing around in frustration, so much so that they actually spank Steve accidentally, but Steve just groans wetly and tightens so much around Tony that he does it again.

It’s only when Steve begins tensing like a spring, his wings fluttering wildly against the water, that Tony starts lashing his hectocotyli as well as thrusting them, something one of his Human partners had told him felt like a vibrator on steroids. 

(He's never actually seen a vibrator before, but it sounds _fascinating_.)

Steve nearly yells into his ear at the sensation, and Tony swears they actually rise up a bit into the air as Steve’s wings beat and flail. 

“Tony,” Steve gasps, endless seconds later, and it’s all Tony can do to not orgasm at the sound of his voice, hoarse and frantic. The friction is so intense like this that his control is in tatters, and he desperately wants Steve to come. Steve’s been shuddering almost constantly for the last couple of minutes, and it feels like he’s already left livid marks on Tony’s neck and shoulders, fingernails dragging along his skin, but he still hasn’t climaxed. “I have to—you can’t— _please_ , I—”

He tries to make sense of Steve’s words. He can’t what? Steve’s begging him as if he’s somehow stopping Steve from orgasming, which would be laughable considering he’s doing everything he can to _make_ him—oh fuck. 

Tony jerks out the tentacle from Steve’s cock, the ones on his nipples accidentally yanking themselves off in reaction as well, and Steve groans like he’s dying, convulsing in Tony’s arms again and again, warm fluid streaming over the end of Tony’s tentacle in a rush and white feathers filling his vision. It catapults him into his own orgasm, and he pushes both his hectocotyli in as far as they can go until he hits resistance, eliciting a high-pitched shout from Steve that makes Tony shake as he comes deep inside of him, the pleasure so all-consuming that his vision goes hazy and he loses sensation in his tentacles, the weight of Steve in his arms the only thing keeping him anchored to himself.

\-----

They mate one more time before reaching the island, again after Steve stumbles his way onto land and Tony directs him on how to open a coconut to drink, and again after Tony brings him two fat fish to eat.

His soulmate. 

Steve explains a little as they recover.

“Soulmates are of the utmost importance in my society. When one of us turns twenty-five, if we haven’t met our Soulmate by then, we develop an inner sense of where they might be, and we go on pilgrimage to find them.”

Steve strokes Tony’s cheek, and he leans into his palm. There’s a cove that allows the two of them to be close without either of them having to be too uncomfortable, but it’s not ideal.

“I didn’t think until I reached the coast that you might live underwater, but by then, it was too late to ask for help. Angels go into heat when they’re close to their Soulmate for the first time. I _had_ to keep going. Stopping would’ve been unbearable.”

It’s almost too easy to understand. Ever since meeting Steve, it feels as if he has to touch him, like the world is darker somehow when they aren’t connected.

“I could tell you were deep beneath the surface, and I tried diving, which is how I lost all my things, but I couldn’t get very far, so I just kept flying in circles until I couldn’t anymore.”

He presses kisses against Steve’s fingers to ward off the horror of what could’ve happened. If Tony hadn’t gone to the surface, if he hadn’t decided to sunbathe on a whim … 

“But when I woke up, there you were,” Steve says, and he sounds awed, grateful, and Tony feels so much love for him that it seems impossible to contain it. “I need you again,” he tells him, and Tony pulls him into his arms.

They mate twice more before Steve falls into an exhausted slumber, and Tony wishes he could lay down next to Steve, but he doesn’t belong on land. He’d dry out if he spent all night there, already has a sunburn on his face from how long he’s been above water. It’s painful seeing Steve and being unable to hold him the way he wants, and it frustrates Tony to no end.

Is this the life they’re going to have together? Only able to live on the boundary of their two worlds?

He refuses to accept it. He isn’t the preeminent engineer in Atlantis for nothing, and there has to be some kind of solution. The Humans wear special clothes and gear to visit them, and he knows he could do better than those ungainly things. 

He wonders what it’d take to build a suit that could carry him up into the air to be with Steve. 

He’s going to find out.


	2. Chapter 2

OMG, guys. OMG! [Tina](https://thirstinart.tumblr.com/) ([tina_v on AO3](https://thirstinart.tumblr.com/)) drew art for me!!!!!!! (sorry, I know this isn't a real chapter, but FUCKING GORGEOUS ART, I can't)

You can find it [here on tumblr](https://thirstinart.tumblr.com/post/621117034122690560/for-some-blue-jack-s-where-could-they-live-as). 

I AM SCREAMING.

Please give this all the likes and reblogs! For me, if not for the glory that is her work. TT_TT


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